Dick Gourley and Vern Vaders--Making Space by Maintaining Ministry Facilities

TLC/PoG Story Project

We are collecting stories of how members of the TLC/PoG community have recognized what God is doing to meet the deep needs of the world and discovered and assumed their unique roles in partnership with God.

When we talk about “making space” for people to recognize what God is doing to meet the deep needs of the world and discover and assume their unique roles in partnership with God, we might think primarily of the spiritual, emotional, relational space where people learn more about God and themselves and develop their gifts.  But all of that rich, life-enhancing action unfolds in a physical space.

Dick Gourley and Vern Vaders have quietly been exercising their ministry of caring for the physical spaces at Trinity Lynwood/Point of Grace day after day and year after year for many years.  Both very long-term members of Trinity (Vern for 56 years and Dick for 47 years), in their retirement years, they have contributed almost daily service to maintaining our buildings. 

Over the years they likely contributed thousands of hours of labor, saving tens of thousands of dollars that would otherwise have been spent on hiring work done.  They fix locks, handle plumbing problems, change faucets and re-set toilets.  They change light bulbs, minor electoral problems and maintain equipment in the pre-school.  At Pointe of Grace, they have taken out trees, repaired broken sprinkler lines, and worked on other maintenance issues.  Dick is the caretaker of the organ, having worked closely with the builder in its early years so that he knows how to make small repairs and keep it clean.  He contributes his time as an usher at funerals to save families costs that would be associated with that.  Vern has spread bark and supervised young people looking for community service opportunities at the church.

With their long history at the church, they recall the days when Sunday School was a thriving ministry and they’re eager to see today’s forms of ministry expand and grow.  They enjoy handling maintenance issues in Trinity’s Preschool and Child Development Center, where the children call them “the grandpas.”

The Trinity/Pointe of Grace community is like a family to Vern and Dick and they treasure the personal connections (as well as the hugs) they enjoy with folks here.  Their quiet commitment to maintaining the place where a lot of ministry happens is often unseen and unnoticed.  Sometimes it can be frustrating because things that are often used often break and often need cleaning.  Yet they continue to come regularly, expressing their gifts in service of the whole so that many other gifts can emerge through what happens in the facilities they work to maintain.

John Berg--Community and Middle East Peace Builders

TLC/PoG Story Project

We are collecting stories of how members of the TLC/PoG community have recognized what God is doing to meet the deep needs of the world and discovered and assumed their unique roles in partnership with God.

John Berg’s call to participate with God in meeting the needs of the world arose from a very personal faith encounter with Jesus during his college years.  He was raised and participated actively in the church but it seemed more of an organizational than a personal relationship to him.  In his early college years, he looked for friendship and community in the 60’s drug culture.  Later, he met some folks associated with Campus Crusade for Christ.  They befriended him, listened to him, and shared their own faith with him.  In contrast to his other circle of friends, John experienced these friends authentically caring for him and his well-being.  He came to understand that a personal faith connection with Jesus was what inspired their love and embraced that same relational connection for himself, recognizing and trusting in Jesus as a solution to the problem of his sinfulness.

John had been studying marketing but, with this new-found perspective, he was no longer drawn to marketing goods and services.  He wanted to invest his life energy in marketing the transforming, reconciling relationship with God through Christ that he had experienced.  This impulse led him to become what is sometimes called a “career missionary.”  After short-term experiences with a mission organization in France and in Lebanon, John went to Fuller Seminary’s School of World Mission, where he met his wife Nancy.  Upon graduation, they served abroad, first in London, then in Cairo, working with an agency that produced a publication that explored life issues from a biblical perspective.  Eventually, John was asked to return to the US to serve as a fundraiser for this mission.  He served in this role for two organizations focused on the Middle East for more than 20 years.

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n 2009, the organization John was serving with was forced to cut staff and he entered a phase of discernment about how to continue to express his passion for reconciliation in the world as he has experienced it through relationship with Christ.  Most career missionaries who work outside of denominational structures are responsible to raise their own support by soliciting financial commitments from churches and individuals.  Without a sponsoring organization, John was also in need of a channel for the gifts of those who were supporting his ministry.  Through conversations with former pastor, Mark Reitan, and pastor Eileen Hanson, John found space in the Trinity/Pointe of Grace community to continue his ministry.  He formed a mustard seed group, Community and Middle East Peace Builders.  Those supporting his bridge-building ministry contribute gifts designated to Community and Middle East Peace Builders.  Until 2013 budget cuts, John’s ministry had received a modest contribution from the church benevolence budget to help cover office space. He hopes for this to be renewed.

John’s intention to build bridges between the Christian and Muslim communities remains strong but he has expanded his focus to be an advocate for social justice, non-violence and reconciliation among multiple populations in our community.  He sees the central theme of his ministry as bringing healing opportunities to broken relationships.  He sees God’s desire that people find reconciliation with God and with fellow human beings and wants to join in furthering that end.

A primary role that John, through Community and Middle East Peace Builders, plays is as a relationship broker, building bridges with many different agencies in the region and helping to connect people to the right resource to meet specific situations.  He represents 25 different organizations in our region and tries to create scenarios where individuals and organizations can work together for healing, and personal betterment.  Some of the things he has done in this networking role include:

• Provides monthly educational opportunities at Trinity, Lynnwood, to educate people in our community about ways to engage in reconciling work locally and across the world.
• Participates in programs welcoming veterans home from Iraq and Afghanistan
• Has done several days of training in The Compassionate Listening Project approach
• Serves on the leadership council of the “Beloved Community”, a diverse group meeting monthly in Seattle who engage in multi-ethnic outreach   
• Meets regularly with Unitarians and Muslims engaged in “Building Bridges” between interfaith groups – including “Racial Profiling and ‘Secure Communities’ bill”
• Participates in Caregivers across Generations (caring for our parents)
• Serves as the Seattle area volunteer representative of Churches for Middle East Peace, including two local networks (Palestine Task Force (CCGS in Seattle) and North Puget Sound Israel-Palestine Mission Network (CCGS in Everett)
• He has served as co-chair of several regional conferences including “Standing with the Living Stones of Palestine” and also “Confronting Islamophobia
• And more to come!

John has long been driven by his desire to join God in manifesting God’s reconciling dream for the world.  Trinity/Pointe of Grace has offered the space for his ministry to continue to unfold in our community.

Rudy Schleussner--Sharing God's Acceptance

TLC/PoG Story Project

We are collecting stories of how members of the TLC/PoG community have recognized what God is doing to meet the deep needs of the world and discovered and assumed their unique roles in partnership with God.

Personal experience of God’s unconditional love and acceptance has inspired Rudy Schleusner’s commitment and courage to offer that same grace to others.

Rudy took to heart the message, learned early in Sunday School, that “Jesus loves me, this I know” and felt a close personal connection to God in childhood and adolescence.  He enjoyed singing to God as he walked through the rural fields or sat on an isolated beach.  The first time he performed a solo, he chose to sing “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” an expression of what he deeply felt about his relationship with God.  Tall and skinny in adolescence and into music instead of sports, like most other kids, Rudy felt somewhat outside of the “mainstream” but he found consistent comfort in a deep sense of being accepted by God.

Rudy and his family had firsthand experience of churches where acceptance of people as they are is not the norm.  As a result, Rudy is committed to creating oases of acceptance where all people can experience the grace and love of God. 

Rudy and Judy’s son, Joel, is gay.  He left home as a teenager preparing to come out because he did not want his family to suffer the community rejection that he expected would arise as a consequence of others discovering this aspect of his identity.  His parents accepted Joel as he is and he returned home where the family became involved in sharing their experience with others.  Some folks were supportive.  Others rejected them for their position.  Some even made anonymous, abusive phone calls to their home condemning them in the name of God.  Through this Rudy remained consistently convinced of God’s loving acceptance and committed to share that acceptance.

When Rudy and Judy moved to Lynnwood from Wisconsin, they brought this passion with them.  They were instrumental in helping to form the Harmony Life Group which extends loving Christian welcome and support to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons and their families and friends.  Many such persons have only negative perceptions of churches that have excluded them, mocked them and condemned them to eternal punishment.  This certainly does not help them believe in God’s love for them!  Rudy, Judy and others who are a part of Harmony are acting as a manifestation of God’s love and acceptance, providing a welcoming entry point to the TLC/PoG community. 

In a widely inclusive community, there are people who share differing perspectives on this issue.  One interesting tension that Rudy experiences in this work is the challenge of maintaining his commitment to accepting others as they are, even when their position might exclude him or those for whom he is concerned.

Harmony has successfully embodied God’s love to those who have felt excluded.  Parents whose gay child was rejected by their own church found a listening ear in the Harmony group.  A woman cut off from family relationships found a supportive and caring community.  Several people looking to see if any church might be a spiritual home for them have connected to the website.  Others have shared with Harmony members that simply being able to share about the existence of this group at TLC/PoG, with co-workers or friends has opened them to the possibility of considering a church connection again.

Harmony group are helping us manifest God’s dream for a world where all know themselves loved and accepted by God.

Rudy and others in the Harmony Group are helping us manifest God's dream for a world where all people know themselves as loved and accepted by God.

Harmony group are helping us manifest God’s dream for a world where all know themselves loved and accepted by God. Harmony group are helping us manifest God’s dream for a world where all know themselves loved and accepted by God.

Judy Stone--Caring for humanity by caring for all of creation

TLC/PoG Story Project

We are collecting stories of how members of the TLC/PoG community have recognized what God is doing to meet the deep needs of the world and discovered and assumed their unique roles in partnership with God.

Judy was raised in a Montana family with parents who had experienced the Depression.  As a consequence, she has always been inclined to use and re-use the resources at hand and waste as little as possible.  A somewhat private person, she spent her career looking for ways that she could be of service to humanity, utilizing her expertise as a microbiologist.  Out of college, as a microbiologist, she applied to work at the FDA because she believed that she could help people by keeping their food and drugs safe.

Judy tends to experience God’s presence most deeply in the presence of the natural world because that connects her more directly to its creator.  This connection with creation sparks contrasting emotions for her:  deep gratitude for the gift given to us to enjoy and deep sadness about the damage and destruction that humanity has caused to that gift.

Caring for the earth is an expression of Judy’s faith and of her concern for humanity.  She notes that the growing amount of land mass under water because of climate change will mean that people who live there will lose their homes; pollution of water sources means that people have a harder time getting water to sustain themselves and their crops.  She links loving one’s neighbor inextricably with loving the earth.  If we say we love our neighbors but destroy the earth, loving our neighbor won’t matter because the neighbors won’t even survive without the earth to sustain them.  As the earth’s resources are consumed by humanity, it is the poorest of the world who will suffer first and most.  When asked what breaks her heart the most about the decline of the environment, Judy acknowledged that she is most distressed when people of faith claim to care for people but do not seem to take seriously the charge to be caretakers of the earth that sustains our existence.

Recycling is one tangible way that Judy has chosen to act to make a difference where she can.  Since the early 1970’s when recycling first became a possibility in the Illinois suburb where she lived, she has been a dedicated recycler because she wants to interrupt the cycle of throwing away things that we must then use up limited resources to manufacture again.

In 2004, when Judy came to Trinity Lutheran Church, she noticed that, in spite of the vast amount of paper and other recyclable materials that Trinity consumed, there was no organized effort to recycle.  Seeing this need, she initiated an effort here that now recycles six to eight cartons of paper per week, plus cardboard, food containers and other materials.  She has created a collection system and spends 1 ½-2 hours weekly at the church hauling the materials out.  She had been advocating for a long time for the church to add a recycling bin to our waste service and, with that recent addition, it is easier for our community to join in this way of preserving the earth.  Judy’s commitment to join with God in meeting the deep needs of the world has increased the integrity of our community, calling us all to faithfulness in caring for the earth.

Editors Note:

Judy will be moving to Illinois in 2013 and wonders if there will be anyone with a similar passion who will spearhead the TLC recycling effort in the future or if it will fall by the wayside when she goes.  Now is a great time for anyone who might want to test out this ministry area for themselves to talk with Judy and shadow her for a week or two to explore if it might be part of your vocation to join with God in meeting the deep needs of the world.